Boston Pride Claim 1st Isobel Cup Championship

The Boston Pride continued their hot streak winning their 10^th in a row to claim history becoming the first ever Isobel Cup Champions at Hockey House at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday night.

The Pride squared off against the Buffalo Beauts in the second game of the National Women’s Hockey League Isobel Cup Finals as the Beauts needed a victory to keep the series alive and force a decisive third and final game on Sunday.

Both goalies played strong through the first half of the opening period keeping the game scoreless despite some close chances on both sides of the puck. The Beauts had a chance on the power play about seven and a half minutes into the game, as Boston’s Marissa Gedman would get called for delay of game, but Beauts were unable to convert on the advantage.

At the 12-minute mark, Brianna Decker would open the scoring and get the Pride on board by splitting the defense after taking a feed from Blake Bolden and Kacey Bellamy. Both teams would get a few more chances before the end of the period, but the Beauts would head to the room down by a goal.

The middle period started out almost like a mirror image of the opening frame, with both teams trading chances but Brittany Ott and Brianne McLaughlin would each stand tall in their nets. Despite a few power play chances for each team in the second, neither team could solve the goalies.

In the third, the Beauts came out knowing they needed to play strong. They would get a few power play chances but would come up unsuccessful. As Gedman would take her third penalty, it would be the Pride that would get a shorthanded chance as Hilary Knight would retrieve a puck that had split the defense off the faceoff and would break before being robbed by McLaughlin, but Decker would be able to slip the second past the Buffalo netminder for her second of the night.

Knight would put the final nail in the coffin with a little more than eight minutes left to make it 3-0. Erin Zach would break the shutout in the final minute, but the Pride were still able to hold on to complete the victory and be crowned as the first ever Isobel Cup Champions. Decker would be named the Most Valuable Player throughout the playoffs.